


Amor Fati

by dementxa



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe, College Student Rei, First Meetings, High School Student Nagisa, Humor, M/M, Minor Original Character(s), Rei Doesn't Believe, some Latin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-27
Updated: 2016-09-27
Packaged: 2018-08-18 05:43:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8151107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dementxa/pseuds/dementxa
Summary: Rei decides that visiting the fortune teller's tent would be amusing.





	

**Author's Note:**

> My very first ReiGisa fic, yay! I had a lot of fun writing this. I didn't really do much editing on it, I just wrote it in one go and decided to post it, lol, so it might be a bit hard to read at times. I hope you like it though!
> 
> Feel free to check out my other fics, and if you like some, leave a comment to let me know! :) Thanks!

Rei allowed his lips to curl into a condescending smile. What a garish and appalling place! And those horrid colours … they made everything seem old and dirty. What strange thing people were, he mused. Out of everything new, unknown and unique that Nature offered them, they chose to celebrate the thing that was familiar to them, the thing that came in their lives every year. The good, old and boring autumn, with her predictable fogs and storms.

This wasn’t how he’d planned on spending his day. When his brother had invited him over, Rei had assumed that they’d stay at his brother’s home, like they had done many afternoons before. Instead, his brother had decided to take his wife, child, and Rei to the fall festival.

And now Rei was strolling on the muddy paths, with his nose wrinkled. The smell of decaying wet leaves was nauseating.

“Rei, relax a little!” His brother laughed. A few children had run past them. They were holding cotton candy and Rei had jumped away, fearful for his clothes. “You’re 21, stop being such a stiff. It’s not appropriate to be acting like a grumpy old man.”

“I am not,” Rei replied with dignity. “It’s true that my tastes do not coincide with what most people perceive as fun, but I do have my pleasures.”

That was the truth. For Rei, there was nothing better than going to one of the labs in his university. He was finally deemed experienced enough to be allowed to use the equipment on his own. He could do some experiments at peace, free from the meddling of professors or students. Most people would consider it work, but for Rei it was pure fun.

Just thinking about it made a blissful smile appear on his face.

He followed his brother around for a while, but soon got tired of that. When his brother and sister-in-law decided to take his three-year-old son on a child’s ride, Rei firmly refused to join them. He found such childish things quite boring and useless. He was far too mature to go on roller coasters.

He looked for a bench where he could sit and wait for his relatives, but he found none. It would be quite tiring to just stand and wait in one place, Rei thought. He sighed and started wandering around, looking at the stalls with slight contempt.

_Caramel apples … why spoil such a healthy treat with sugar?_

A while later he noticed a tent. It was hard to miss, with its neon pink, black and purple stripes. A sign hung in front of the entrance. It said – “Mr. Papilio, who knows everything that the future holds”.

Rei almost laughed out loud. Of course – a fortune teller! What a traditional and simple-minded staple of the fall festival.

Why not go in? He had some time to kill, and as evening drew nearer, the wind had become unpleasantly chilly. It would surely be warmer in the tent. And it would be fun, seeing this person. Rei didn’t believe in such illogical things as predicting the future.

He went in the tent and started coughing. Someone had lit incense with such a strong aroma that it brought tears to Rei’s eyes.

“Come in, visitor! I’ve been expecting you!”

The voice was childish and melodic as a bell. It definitely wasn’t the deep, mystical voice that Rei had expected. When he regained his normal vision, he saw that the fortune teller was a short, bubbly boy. He was younger than Rei, and Rei assumed that he was a high-school student who was using the opportunity to earn some extra money by working at the fall festival.

_What theatrical clothing!_

He was dressed more like a pirate than a fortune teller – a white shirt with ruffled sleeves, a bright red headband that could not contain his puffy blond hair, and lots and lots of jewellery. He was smiling ingratiatingly at Rei.

"Come in, come in! Your future is calling you!"

Rei smiled lightly. The boy's unusual appearance had thrown him off for a few seconds, but he felt he was in control again. He confidently walked to the small round table - _so clichéd_ , he thought - and sat down. He didn't speak until after the boy had taken his place opposite him.

"I'd just like to forewarn you - I won't believe anything you tell me," he said a bit pompously. "I'm a sensible man, and I'd never believe in such illogical things as fortune telling."

"Ah!" The boy's eyes, big and dark pink in colour, gleamed. "And yet you're here."

"Only because I think witnessing such an act would be greatly amusing to me."

Mr. Papilio remained silent for a while. He watched Rei, resting his elbows on the table. Then he smiled and clapped his hands.

"Oh, but I'll make a believer out of you! Just you wait!"

Rei laughed.

"I very much doubt that," he said, adjusting his glasses. They kept slipping down his nose, no matter how many times he replaced the frame.

"Aww, don't be like that. You gotta keep an open mind, right?" The boy didn't seem perturbed by Rei's words. "C'mon, gimme me your name and I shall tell you your future!"

"It’s Rei. I don't think I'll give you my last name too - if you are a true fortune teller, as you claim, you should be able to predict my future just on my given name alone. Not that I believe this is the case. By the way, you do know that papilio is just the Latin word for butterfly, right? It doesn't sound very mystical."

The blond boy laughed.

"It's better than Nagisa, at any rate!" He remarked. "So you figured it out, huh? You're the first one to do so - you must be very smart."

"That I am." Rei smirked.

"Hehe!" Nagisa giggled. "I just need to write your name and do some calculations, and I can start!" He took a pink notepad and started scribbling something on it. Rei glanced, curious despite himself, but only saw a few numbers that meant nothing to him. When Nagisa was done, he put the notepad aside and gazed into the crystal ball on the table. "Hm ... interesting ... interesting ..." He mumbled under his breath.

"Will you share my future with me?" Rei asked sarcastically, raising an eyebrow.

"In a minute. I need to be certain that what I'm seeing is the truth. Sometimes, there are evil spirits, who," he cast Rei a serious look, "enjoy toying with people. They often send deceitful images of the future."

"You really think I'll be deceived by such ... fantasies?" Rei smirked.

"They're not fantasies. I promise you, you will admit I was right in the end." Nagisa smiled at him. "Now gimme your hand. That way I will know for sure what your future holds."

Rei rolled his eyes, but obediently extended his arm. Nagisa grasped it with both hands - his skin was warm and soft - and studied his palm intently. A few minutes passed in silence. Finally, Nagisa leaned back.

"I'm done!" He announced. "Rei-chan, your future is not a mystery to me anymore. You," he made a dramatic pause, "will have a romantic encounter very soon!"

Rei laughed, this time louder. He found the "prediction" so funny that he even forgot to be irritated with the overly casual and disrespectful way Nagisa had addressed him.

"Congratulations, Nagisa. This was really impressive. That is, I don't believe in your, hm, _talent_. Psychologically speaking, though, the promise of romance would definitely work on most people. Unfortunately for you," he straightened up in his chair, "I'm not one of these people. I consider love a useless feeling."

"So you think I made it up?" Nagisa pouted. "I saw other things about you, Rei-chan. I know you're a university student."

"A reasonable assumption, given my age." Rei shrugged.

"And I know you're studying ... um ... Law!"

"Physics," Rei corrected him. "Honestly, I expected your deduction skill to be on a higher level. If you can't predict the future, you could at least be a little more observant."

"But I _can_ see the future!"

"No, you can't. Nobody can." Rei cleared his throat. "Allow me to explain to you. I'll try to make it as simple as I can. Let's assume that there is a way to see the future. And I mean actually see future events, not just make calculated predictions based on empirical facts," unknowingly, his voice had become louder and he was now speaking passionately. Nagisa listened to him with a slightly gaping mouth. "Now, one's future is shaped by one's actions. And in any given minute, a person has a choice between a minimum of two acts. Let's say, you wake up in the morning - you have the choice to either get out of bed, or remain there. Based on your action in that moment, your day, your future, can go two different ways, right? And then, say if you do choose to get up, you are still met with more and more options, from which you need to choose one. And all these options accumulate, and so you are left with an infinite amount of possible futures." He paused to catch his breath. "Now, if a person just had a glimpse at all these versions, they would be psychically able to assimilate them. It would be an enormous burden on one's mind. And so, we are forced to conclude that human beings are incapable of processing the information they'd get from seeing the future."

Nagisa clapped his hands excitedly. Rei wasn't sure how his speech had earned him such cheering, but almost despite himself, he felt flattered.

"That was amazing, Rei-chan!" Nagisa exclaimed. "You know everything, don't you?"

"I like to think that I am quite knowledgeable, yes." He nodded, trying to sound modest.

"And yet ... I'm telling you the truth about your future, Rei-chan."

"Honestly, Nagisa, I think it's very childish of you to be so stubborn and-"

The table shook as Nagisa made his move. The crystal ball fell down and rolled away. Rei paid it no heed. He found himself strangely immobile. From the second that Nagisa's lips touched his, Rei couldn't even lift a finger.

He knew that he should be annoyed, but he couldn't bring himself to be. It didn't feel real enough for him to be angry with the other. Nagisa's face was just an inch from Rei's. He had very long eyelashes, Rei noticed, and freckles on his nose, just a tone darker than his skin. He must have spent some time in the sun, Rei thought absently. Fair-haired people like Nagisa got sunburnt easily. He should use sun lotion, or else he’d get more freckles on his skin. Rei made a mental note to tell him that - when his lips were free, that is.

Nagisa finally moved away. He gave Rei a gentle smile, as if what he'd just done was something natural. As for Rei, the pleasant surreal feeling he'd experienced faded away as soon as the blond had broken the kiss. He stood up.

“Really, the audacity!” He said indignantly. His voice was shaking. “You should be ashamed of yourself! Didn’t your parents raise you better?!”

Without waiting for an answer, he left the tent. He found his brother and the others and the small group headed to the parking lot. His brother tried to start up a conversation, but gave up after seeing that Rei was obviously in a foul mood. They walked to the car in silence.

Rei plopped on the back seat and sighed. That was the last time, he swore to himself, that he went to have his fortune told. From now on, he was going to stick to what he knew – his work and his studies. If he did, he’d never get tricked like that ever again.

_What’s wrong with me? A high-schooler, making me look like a fool like that …_

“…?”

When he reached into his pocket, he found there was something in it. He didn’t have the habit of shoving items in his pockets, so he was curious to see what it was and how it had got there. He took it out. It turned out to be a piece of pink paper, rolled into a ball.

_Rei-chan,_ it said _, are you a believer now? I promised you a romantic encounter, and it happened! I’m going to write my number below, and I’ll be very happy to hear from you. I predict that you will call me. Nagisa~_

Annoyed, Rei crumpled the paper and pushed it back in his pocket.

_Really, this kid! The nerve!_


End file.
